1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to stands and support devices and more particularly to an apparatus for supporting a musical instrument during play.
2. Description of Related Art
The following art defines the present state of this field:
Van den Broek, U.S. Pat. No. 4,392,627 describes a dismantleable boat cradle comprising a frame which forms a closed rectangle and is constructed from profile sections with non-circular cross-section which are connected with each other at the comer points by couplings, which are built up from three tube sections which are mutually perpendicular to each other and which accommodate two frame sections and an upright, of which at least one is open at both ends, said uprights having an adjustable height and carrying support heads.
Yamashita, U.S. Pat. No. 4,732,070 describes an electronic bass drum mainly constructed by two front legs which stand substantially vertically and are parallel to each other, two rear legs whose one ends are connected to the front legs and whose other ends extend obliquely downward, a pad whose back surface is fixed to the front legs and whose front surface is striken by a player and a pickup which is attached to the back surface. The pickup detects a vibration of the pad caused by the player's strike and outputs a detection signal representing electrically the vibration. Drum sound is realized by driving a sound source such as a PCM sound source, a FM sound source in response to the detection signal.
Hoshino, U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,874 describes a bass drum support to position the drum beating spot at a desired height, to prevent stress at the connection of the drum to a foot pedal operated drum beater and to minimize transmission of vibration from the drum body to the support and the foot pedal. A front support leg is supported at the center of the front end of the body of the drum through a vibration absorption set, made, for example, of rubber. A pair of rear support legs extend to the rear part of the drum body and are resilient. The lengths of the legs are adjustable. The rear legs are inclined forwardly of the drum body. Clamping of the front end of the drum by the drum beater pedal assembly is avoided.
Barthel, U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,686 describes a support housing including a plurality of radially projecting arm members mounted to the support housing, with the arm members formed of a first and second arm each slidable relative to one another, with each arm including an orthogonally and upwardly oriented projection. A modification of the invention includes projections formed with a polymeric spring-biased tip to resiliently support a workpiece minimizing marring of the workpiece during a drying procedure.
Hoshino, U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,575 describes an easily foldable conga stand that takes little space and facilitates the setup of a conga. The conga stand comprises three leg members each having on its upper end a presser portion and on its lower end a leg lower hinge portion, leg slide members each attached to each leg member and provided with a hinge portion, a shank member having a lower hinge portion on its lower end, a shank upper slide member attached to the shank member and provided with a hinge portion, a shank lower slide member attached to the shank member and provided with a hinge portion, three holding stays both ends of each being pivoted to the hinge portion of the leg slide member and the hinge portion of the shank upper slide member, respectively, three support stays both ends of each being pivoted to the leg lower hinge portion and the hinge portion of the shank lower slide member, respectively, and three auxiliary stays both ends of each being pivoted to the lower hinge portion of the shank member and the middle of the support stay, respectively.
Kurosaki, U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,680 describes the construction of a snare drum stand having a lower support and an upper center post, four sets of arms are mounted overhead the center post with 90 degrees center angle intervals whilst extending radially outwords. Distant positioning of the radial arms form lugs on the annular brim of a drum allows easy mounting of the drum onto the stand and easy tension adjustment via the lugs.
Ostrander, Chap, "Good things really do come in small packages," Modern Drummer magazine, July 1999, pp 45-47 describes and shows a drum support mount with means for attaching a pedal and striker assembly.
The prior art teaches upright adjustable stands, stands with multiple folding legs, supports with legs extending in radial array, drum supports, supports for boats and supports for drums with attached peddle and striker. However, the prior art does not teach a drum support having the structure and related advantages of the present invention as described in the following summary.